EPL- The evolving phenomenom

When in 2012 Manchester City won the English Premier League, a new dawn set in. Prior to that, only four teams had been able to achieve that feat in the premier league era. Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Arsenal and Chelsea football clubs were the exclusive few to do that.

Blackburn Rovers after winning the title in 1995, went on a downward spiral. They eventually got relegated in 2012. Three teams held sway in winning the title after Blackburns achievement. Man. Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea took turns to win the coveted title, with Man Utd. having the upper hand.

While those three teams took turn in winning the title, a scenario developed. The Union of European Football Association (Uefa) gave four slots to the English Premier League in their annual premier competition called the Uefa Champions league. This was as a result of English teams performance in Europe and the growing influence of the EPL.

This meant that aside the competition for the league title, the competition to finish amongst the top four teams emerged. Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea held their grip on the top four positions for some years. Everton football club was the first team to break rank, when in 2005, the club finished fourth in the EPL.

The next team to achieve this feat was Tottenham Hotspur football club who, finished top four in 2010. Shortly after Everton football club achieved its feat, the Abu Dhabi United Group in 2008 bought Manchester City Football Club. This brought about the injection of a lot of money into the club which, improved the standard of the team. Little wonder therefore that in 2011, Man City got into the top four positions, and in 2012, the club won its first English league title in 44 years.

Since 2010 season, Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea have taken turns to miss out of the top four finish. The EPL is slowly but surely moving from having four teams to several teams vying for the top four positions. Leciester City Football Club did the miraculous in the 2015/2016 season. The club beat the 5000-1 odds to win the EPL. The club has since gone back to traditional position of mid table team.

The 2018/2019 is fast coming to an end and four teams are fighting for the third and fourth positions in order to make the top four teams. The seeming obvious is that more teams are now vying to finish top four and is made even more obvious from the league table were only three points separate the third to sixth positions. What does this portend for the English Premier League?

In 2005 when the Glazer family bought Manchester United Football Club, a new trend in English Premier League Club ownership emerged. Since then, many clubs have been sold and with these sales, more funds are injected to improve the standard and fortunes of the clubs. More funds mean more money to buy the best players available. The clubs with more funds to spare have quality players in their teams and so perform better.

With the champions league as reward for finishing in the top four, so is the Europa league the reward for finishing in the top five. Football clubs want to be in Europe every season in order to make more money, and so a lot of investment go into player purchase to beef up the teams with the best available players. It will not therefore come as a surprise, that Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club, have made permanent the loan deal of striker Raul Jimenez even before the next transfer window. This has to do with his performance and the club wants to keep their best players.

It may therefore be safe to say that with the amount of money made from playing in Europe, more clubs in the EPL will be sold to business people seeking to invest and make money from the clubs. It may also be safe to say that the EPL will keep attracting and bringing in the best players in the world. Let us keep our fingers crossed.

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